Googling a random ache in your knees isn’t really part of digital healthcare. It is more of a scare than care. We have been accustomed to fear-mongering when it comes to healthcare, especially in the light of Covid-19, but digital healthcare evolution has been in the works longer than we realise. Today, we go back to basics to look at what we mean by digital healthcare and its impact now and in the coming years.
The tech-led healthcare ecosystem has progressively transformed care. We are witnessing seamless, personalised experiences and coordinated care at the forefront of the digital revolution in healthcare. Did you realise that there is no need for folders of your reports bundled up in an archaic documenting system in the archive room? With a click of a button, your medical history springs up on the screen for your doctor, all thanks to cloud technology. These reports and records can also be accessed via tablets and mobile phones. Owing to its accessibility, medical professionals can view them and opine accordingly for treatments. This helps for faster opinion and patient care. This is where utmost convenience plays an essential factor in this revolution.
Perhaps, that was an oversimplified example. Let’s explore other ways how digital healthcare is impacting our lives— particularly patient-centred care. As digital healthcare adopts this model, health autonomy is shifted to patients, enabling them the power to choose the level of care they want from their preferred health providers. The launch of teleconsultation-style service allows patients to receive health advice from medical officers or specialists from the comfort of their homes. This is another layer in the patient-centric model, beneficial for patients with chronic or long-term illnesses. They can live further away from a medical facility by depending on sensors and real-time data monitoring to predict when they require medical assistance. Also, we could witness a shift in focus on customer experience, enabling more integrations between processes that build an overall digital enterprise at a holistic level.
Speaking of data monitoring, this brings us to our second point that is disrupting conventional data mining in healthcare. Data analytics is massive now within the industry as it becomes easier to collect data and create comprehensive healthcare reports and convert them into relevant critical insights that can then be used to provide better care. In healthcare data analytics, doctors and experts can use data-driven findings to predict and solve a problem before it is too late and assess methods and treatments faster and even cost-effectively.
There is a significant emphasis on technology in this revolution, such as the adoption of immersive technology. Augmented reality (AR) is a sophisticated technology in digital healthcare whereby its versatility offers to integrate effectively in almost any area like marketing, education, retail industries, and more. AR devices can change the way doctors diagnose and treat diseases because it is a technology that allows visualising virtual elements integrated into the physical environment through a technological device. Essentially, it adds a second virtual reality but without replacing fundamental physics. AR contributes to diagnostic practises as well as simplifies sampling techniques to a great measure. The integration of Ai is also evident in customer service architecture where chatbots are integrated with WhatsApp helped answer a wide range of queries. This way, it can reduce the need for human intervention in mild diagnosis and information sharing tasks. Therefore, this simple integration then enables experts to cater to severe conditions and dire administration problems effectively.
Education is another area within this digital healthcare realm that encountered staggering breakthroughs that also utilised Ai and virtual reality. These technologies allow medical students to gain valuable hands-on experiences alongside studying the theory and increase the learning process's effectiveness. Students, both on-site and remote, could implement these resources into their learning process to simulate patients and surgical encounters, carry out a complex operation like on the heart or study the body anatomy. AR devices (and other wearable tech) and online broadcasting in 360 degrees allow more qualified surgeons to participate in actual operations remotely.
Investing the time and resources to build a strong foundation for digital health ecosystems helps reduce the cost of services when needed. Regardless, there is much more to see as it gains momentum, including better tools such as AI and virtual trials to empower patient outcomes, maturation of funding to public markets, regulatory innovation and technology adoption, and more.
